26 February 2004	Thursday	05 Muharram 1425

ISLAMABAD, Feb 25: The fate of promises made by President Gen Pervez Musharraf since taking power in 1999 came under a critical scrutiny in the Senate on Wednesday as the upper house continued its debate on his address to parliament last month.

Senators from the ruling coalition, spurred by a brief presence of Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali in the house, showered praise on the president for what they saw as a fulfilment of all promises made by Gen Musharraf.

But the opposition disputed their assertions during the debate participated by 15 senators and accused the president of compromising the integrity of institutions like parliament, judiciary and armed forces.

Senator Farhatullah Babar of the People's Party Parliamentarians (PPP) caused some stir as he, while taking up a ruling coalition senator's challenge to prove corruption by anybody in President Musharraf's three-year administration, pointed a finger at the top - the president.

Babar Ghori of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) from Sindh, had thrown the gauntlet as he delivered one of the day's most strident defences of the president, whom he called a "man of crisis" who, he said, had extricated Pakistan from all recent crises and put it on the path of progress.

He called the president's speech to the joint sitting of both houses of parliament on Jan 17 a "mirror" of the actual situation, and said: "He made no false promises and showed no golden dreams."

Mr Ghori, who began and ended his speech with Urdu couplets in praise of the president, challenged the opposition to cite any instance of any corruption by any member of the president's cabinet, which was replaced by Mr Jamali's cabinet after the October 2002 elections.

But Mr Farhatullah Babar, fresh from a weekend meeting with self-exiled party leader Benazir Bhutto held in London with senior party figures, gave a list of what he called broken promises of the president, including those about not taking the office of president, not holding a referendum, continuing the Kashmir jihad, holding across-the-board accountability and fighting corruption.

He said he would talk about the "top man" rather than the ministers some of whom, according to him, had been forced to join the cabinet because of possible prosecution by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

Citing from what he called a dossier about the affair, Mr Babar accused the president of not mentioning a plot allotted to him in Peshawar cantonment among his assets declared by him - including plots in several places in the country - and then selling the same for Rs4.6 million against the allotment price of a little over Rs5,000.

"Is this honesty? Is it not corruption?" the senator asked as he saw a move to convert the honourable institution of army into a "plot mafia". Ms Nighat Mirza (MQM, Sindh) and Ms Gulshan Saeed (PML-Q, Punjab) came strongly in support of the president as the debate resumed after a day's recess, praising his handling of both the domestic and foreign policies.

Raza Mohammad Raza, parliamentary leader of the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party from Balochistan, called President Musharraf "a stranger" to parliament like previous three military rulers - Field Marshal Ayub Khan, General Yayha Khan, General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq - and accused him of paralysing rather than strengthening institutions like parliament and judiciary as promised by him.

He complained of deprivation of provinces of smaller population in what he saw a policy leading the country to a unitary form of government with powers concentrated in the centre, and demanded a new "social contract" in a new constitution to give more autonomy to provinces and a fresh presidential election as provided under the Constitution.

Mr Mouhim Khan Baloch (BNP-Awami, Balochistan), whose party is an ally of the government, by and large praised President Musharraf's policies, but said his speech was incomplete for failing to identify mistakes committed in the past as in case of Afghan policy, and called for bringing Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan and other scientists accused of nuclear proliferation before an open court to explain their position.

He thanked the president for starting the implementation of Gwadar port project, but warned him about what he called a lobby that did not want to see Balochistan make progress.

Prof Ghafoor Ahmed of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal complained of lack of legislative work by the present government, denial of provincial autonomy and the treatment given to nuclear scientists in the proliferation row.

"If the Red Cross can meet (former Iraqi president) Saddam Hussein, why relatives cannot meet our scientists?" he asked as he also criticised the ruling of a bench of the Lahore High Court rejecting their petition for release.

The MMA senator opposed the planned revival of the National Security Council through an act of parliament, and said the military should concentrate on their basic job of defending the country's borders.

Senator Dilawar Abbasi, a treasury member, suggested to shun egoistic approaches and participate in the progress of the country for which "we should also be ready for sacrifices if we really want to see the country standing among the developed nations".

He said President Musharraf had fulfilled all promises he made before the nation and his roadmap to the democracy was widely accepted in which even the opposition played a role.

Former law minister Dr Khalid Ranjha said the speech of the president was, in fact, a direction for future course of action and a road for development, which, he said, the parliamentarians should ensure.

"Today we are discussing about problems the country is facing, when we should be talking of solutions," he said, adding that failing in this would mean that "we are not performing as legislators".

He differed with president's speech of declaring a particular 'mindset' as the biggest hurdle in country's progress, saying the biggest problem was 'sycophancy' and nepotism which was eroding fast the very concept of governance.

Dr Ranjha was of the view that by not listening to the speeches made by the presidents in the past as well as the present, the legislators were not adhering to the constitutional provisions.

"When being members, we ourselves never implement the Constitution upon ourselves, how can we expect from other institutions to have respect for the law and the Constitution," he asked.

Speaking next, PML-N member Saadia Abbasi said the Democratic Alliance never considered Gen Pervez Musharraf a legitimate president but an "usurper" who had come after toppling an elected democratic government in a military coup.

Similarly, all steps taken by Gen Musharraf like introducing Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), Legal Framework Order (LFO), referendum and "fraudulent" 17th amendment were, in fact, deviation of the Constitution.

She dubbed Gen Musharraf as a Gen U-turn for his abrupt change of policies of the principled stance on Kashmir, Afghanistan and nuclear issues, which were always the domain of the military.

"Today we have conceded that yesteryear jihadis are now today's terrorists," she said, adding that they engaged Mullahs to derail Lahore Declaration and now our scientists were being labelled as partners and operators of underworld in the nuclear proliferation.

She also criticized the recent privatization of the Habib Bank, and alleged that the military establishment was running the affairs of the country.

Haji Liaquat Ali Bungalzai (MMA), Syed Amjad Abbas (PML-Q), Ahmedullah Khan Kakar (MMA), Prof Saeed Siddiqui (MQM), Sajjad Bukhari (PPP) and Latif Ansari (PPP) also participated in the debate.